PACs funding Reed campaign

Monday

Nov 18, 2013 at 6:08 PM

By James Postjpost@the-leader.com

In the lead-up to the 2014 election, incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Reed is showing a big lead in fundraising over his Democratic challenger Martha Robertson, though much of Reed's money is coming from outside political committees.Reed has raised about $1.2 million this year, compared to Robertson's approximately $438,000."Over the last six months we've raised about a million dollars," Reed said Monday.When you break down the numbers, the picture gets a little more complicated.Reed's campaign has raised $477,619 in contributions from individual donors (through the third quarter of the year).Over the same period, Robertson has brought in $395,711 in individual contributions, despite not entering the race until April.The biggest gap in the size of the two campaigns' pocketbooks is in the category the Federal Election Commission calls "other committees contributions" – largely political action committees, or PACs, supporting the political interests of businesses, groups and unions.Reed has received $709,001 from groups in that category, with major donors including Chesapeake Energy, Nucor, health care lobbying groups and banks.For Robertson, the total is $42,616. Her donors include left-leaning issue-based PACs like Leadership That Listens PAC and the Off the Sidelines PAC started by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to assist women candidates.Robertson campaign spokesman George Koutsos said the difference in the sources of their funds demonstrates a difference in the focus of each candidate."Martha is 100 percent focused on talking to people throughout the 23rd District about their concerns, while Tom Reed is focused on raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporate PACs," Koutsos said. "Martha is humbled by the support of thousands of individuals from across the district."Reed and Robertson have both also been identified as important targets for support from their respective national parties.Reed is part of the National Republican Congressional Committee's Patriot program, while Robertson is part of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Jumpstart program.Both programs offer financial and organizational support to candidates in races the party considers key to their success."There's about 49 districts across the nation they're classifying as competitive," Reed said.He said, as he has in the past, that his focus isn't on the campaign at this point."If we stand for good strong policies, the politics will take care of itself," Reed said.Information about a candidate's campaign finances is available online by going to www.fec.gov and clicking on the Campaign Finance Disclosure Portal and then on the Candidate and Committee Viewer, where readers can search for candidates by name and state.